Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Rockford University Vice President of Enrollment Management Eric Fulcomer’s name.

BELOW: Tips to stay on track

ROCKFORD — College enrollment is declining in the Rockford area and across the nation, but salvation won’t come solely from recruiting new students.

The trick to sustained enrollment, college administrators and experts say, is to prevent students from stumbling off the path to degree completion.

Trustees at Rock Valley College are discussing student retention and completion strategies, along with marketing and recruiting ideas, to reverse what’s been a slow and steady enrollment slide. This fall, enrollment at Rock Valley is 8,150. That marks the fifth consecutive year of enrollment decline and is nearly 6 percent below the 2009 student head count of 8,659.

This fall also marks the fifth straight year of enrollment decline at Rockford University and Northern Illinois University. Nationally, undergraduate and graduate enrollment is down 2 percent after a period of substantial growth between 2006 and 2011, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

There are many reasons for the decline. Overall, the job market has improved and federal subsidies that allowed dislocated workers to go back to school following the recession have run out. High school graduation rates are leveling off or are projected to fall in many areas of the country.

College administrators are more closely examining how to keep the students they already have. There’s another reason for this inward focus: demand for workers with a college diploma is growing faster than the supply of graduates. The U.S. is lagging behind other industrialized countries on this metric, and President Obama’s stated goal is for the U.S. to produce 8 million more college graduates by 2020.

“The big push is degree completion, not just retention,” said Marsha Miller, assistant director of resources and services with the National Academic Advising Association based at Kansas State University.

Miller’s point is not lost on Tyler Townsend. The 19-year-old Davis resident plans to transfer to Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., after wrapping up coursework at Highland Community College in Freeport. His eyes are on the finish line: earning a diploma.

“With the job market being as tough as it is, you have to finish school to try and make yourself as marketable as possible,” he said.

Here’s a look at how Rockford-area colleges and universities are weathering enrollment declines:

Rock Valley College

A grant-funded pilot program for first-generation college students, now in its second year, is among strategies Rock Valley College is employing to keep students on track to earn an associate degree or certificate. The program, called The Right Place to Start, pairs new students with life coaches and second-year student mentors who help participants maintain a healthy work-life balance.

“Increasing persistence, retention and completion rates, and doing all of these things in concert are going to help keep the needle relatively stable,” said Amy Diaz, RVC’s vice president of student development.

Northern Illinois University

NIU had a slight increase in the size of its freshman class, and its graduate school enrollment increased a bit, too. Total enrollment, however, declined 3.3 percent to 21,138 students.

New NIU President Doug Baker is revisiting the university’s Vision 2020 strategic plan, which calls for a significant expansion of online coursework and growing enrollment to 30,000 students by 2020, among other goals. Baker will articulate his vision for the college’s future at his Nov. 13 inaugural address.

“What he’s doing now is looking at ways we can reach some of those goals or modify some of them,” said Paul Palian, NIU’s director of media and public relations. “Is it feasible to get to 30,000 students by 2020? What other priorities need attention? This is really a campus and community effort of looking at the realities of where we are and assessing where we need to go.”

Rockford University

Total enrollment at Rockford University has declined 4 percent to 1,286 students compared to 1,341 in the fall 2009 term. This year, the number of incoming students is the same as last year. The enrollment decline is mostly attributed to two populations: transfer students and those enrolled in the university’s adult accelerated Bachelor of Science in management studies program.

“They are the ones most affected by the economy,” said Eric Fulcomer, vice president of enrollment management. Either they don’t have the resources to go to college — they might take a semester off — or particularly in the case of the management studies students, they are being asked to work more and they drop off for a semester.

There are bright spots, however. The college doubled the number of international students on campus this fall; nearly half are English as Second Language students who are not seeking degrees. The university’s nursing program has grown, too.

A study released by the Center for Public Education in October 2012 found that students who take rigourous high school coursework and meet regularly with an academic adviser once in college are more likely to complete their college degree. The study boils down to three findings:

High-level mathematics: Students have a better chance of persisting in college by taking Pre-calculus or Calculus or math above Algebra II while in high school. The impact is even greater for students attending two-year colleges.

Advanced Placement: The more Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate courses a student takes in high school, even if the student struggles, the greater their college persistence rate.

Academic advising: For both four-year and two-year college students, talking to an academic adviser in college either “sometimes” or “often” significantly improved their chances to persist.

Page 3 of 3 - Read the full report at centerforpubliceducation.org and search for “High school rigor and good advice: Setting up students to succeed.”